• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, June 16, 2005

According to a new release by The Media Audit, there are 24.3 million adults under the age of 45 with a college degree: 12.3 million are women and 11.9 million are men. And, says Bob  Jordan, president of International Demographics, "In a very few years there will be more college educated women than men,"

Within the Hispanic and African-American populations the gender/education shift is even more pronounced than it is in the general population.

• There are 17 million African-American adults in the 87 metropolitan markets surveyed. Of that number, 22.5 percent or 3.8 million are college graduates and 59.6 percent or 2.3 million are women.
• African-American women outnumber men in these markets; 9.6 million to 7.5 million and a significantly larger percentage of the women are college educated 23.9 percent to 20.7 percent for men.
• Of all African-Americans with a college degree, 59.6 percent are women and 40.4 percent are men.

"As women and men become better educated they become more affluent and their media habits change," says Jordan. "The income differences may be of no surprise, but the changes in media habits can be startling. Education has a significant impact on the lifestyles, media habits, income and buying power of both men and women.  It is a serious demographic factor" 

  For instance,

• 56.3 percent of all those who listen to the Country radio format are women, but just 26.6 percent of those that do, have a college degree.
• On the other hand, just 18 percent of all women listen to Sports radio but 51.9 percent of those that do have a college education.  
• More than 58.2 percent of college educated women have household incomes of $50,000 or more compared to 39.8 percent of all women.
• Among college educated women, 38.8 percent have household incomes of $75,000 or more compared to 22.6 percent of women in general.

You can find out more information here.